Word: icon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...strand of gray plastic tubing threaded through it, the ends pointing inward. The whole inside of the cube is lined with these enormous glossy hairs. You can't not see it as organic: sea anemone, vagina. And it refers back culturally too, since its obvious predecessor is that icon of oral sex in the Museum of Modern Art, Meret Oppenheim's fur-lined cup and spoon. What happens then to the famous hands-off character of Minimalism -- austere objects fabricated by remote control, factory-made to specifications issued by the artist...
...realize that Santa Claus is somehow derived from St. Nicholas, and it's true that no self-respecting Jew would ever romp around in that idiotic outfit and give away all that stuff for free. But as an American icon, he's much closer to Dom DeLuise than Pope John Paul II. Anybody with a head like Dean Jewett and a body like Dean Epps isn't my idea of a symbol of religious devotion...
...Slavophiles. Government ministers and parliamentarians constantly refer to the way the Dutch milk cows, the Americans collect taxes and the Germans dispose of garbage, as if Western practice is the standard by which everything must now be judged. As cultural historian James Billington notes in his book The Icon and the Axe, "Repeatedly, Russians have sought to acquire the end products of other civilizations without the intervening process of slow growth and inner understanding...
...epic about the martyred black leader, has finally arrived on the big screen. For Lee and for millions of African Americans, Malcolm X has always been more than just a movie. It is, in fact, a cause. In the 27 years since his assassination, Malcolm has become a revered icon in the black community. Young blacks in particular, idolize his philosophy of pride and defiance...
...disc reaches its emotional nadir with Sweetness Follows, in which Stipe ponders the death of loved ones, and Everybody Hurts, an anti-suicide lullaby. Clearly ambivalent about his and the band's new status as pop icon, Stipe seems to be mourning nothing less than a loss of innocence. "I'm sure all those people understand/ It's not like years before," he sings in Nightswimming. "The fear of getting caught/ The recklessness of water/ They cannot see me naked...